Good:
In December, two Republican lawmakers ― an assemblyman and a state senator ― resigned to take jobs in the Walker administration. The governor has said he won’t call a special election for the vacant seats, leaving them to be filled in the regularly scheduled November election, in order to save the state money. The winners of those two races wouldn’t be seated until January of 2019, meaning voters in their districts will go over a year without representation.
Democrats contend that Walker is delaying the vote in hopes of holding on to two GOP seats after Democrats unexpectedly won a January special election in a Wisconsin district that Donald Trump had carried handily in 2016.
On Monday, the National Redistricting Foundation, an affiliate of the Eric Holder-chaired National Democratic Redistricting Committee, sued Walker on behalf of eight Wisconsin voters, saying they had a right to representation in the state legislature that the governor was blocking. The suit, filed in Dane County Circuit Court, asks a judge to order Walker to call special elections.
Wisconsin law says a legislative vacancy that occurs before the second Tuesday in May of a regular election year “must be filled as promptly as possible by special election.”
Click here if you want to get involved with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
In other Walker-related news, it looks like Walker’s biggest obstacles to re-election are his fellow Republicans:
Gov. Scott Walker will sign a $200 million bill Tuesday to stabilize Obamacare marketsin Wisconsin even as state Attorney General Brad Schimel sued seeking to block the entire law.
The GOP governor — a longtime critic of the Affordable Care Act — has emphasized in recent weeks that he wants to hold down prices for insurance purchased through the law and make sure it's affordable for state residents.
But Schimel, also a Republican, moved in the opposite direction this week, leading a group of 20 states who are suing to block Obamacare entirely. Though Republicans in Congress failed to repeal the law last year, Schimel argues that they made enough changes that the law is no longer constitutional.
"I bring this challenge to Obamacare because, as Wisconsin’s attorney general, I swore to uphold the rule of law and protect our state from overreaching and harmful actions from the federal government," Schimel said in a statement.
The actions of the two top GOP leaders in the state Capitol underline the choice for their party on the ACA: do they keep trying to get rid of the law or accept it as part of American health care since Congress didn't replace it?
Schimel is filing the Obamacare lawsuit in federal court in Texas and leading the case along with Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of that state.
In a 2012 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the individual mandate in Obamacare by saying Congress had the authority to impose a tax on consumers who don't purchase health insurance. Last year, Congress and President Donald Trump eliminated the tax.
We have plenty of great candidates running for Governor on the Democratic side and we have a shot to win the Attorney General race with a voting-rights attorney, Josh Kaul (D. WI), looking to replace Schimel. Click here to donate and get involved with Kaul’s campaign.
Click below to donate and get involved with the Democratic candidates running for Governor:
Tony Evers
Dana Wachs
Kathleen Vinehout
Andy Gronik
Paul Soglin